The University of Toronto Charles H. Best Lectureship and Award, endowed by Dr. John K. and Mary E. Davidson, was established to honour Charles H. Best, a co-discoverer of insulin and Chairman of the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto (1929-1965). It is intended to be the most prestigious International Award in the field of Diabetes given by the University of Toronto. In addition to the discovery of insulin, Dr. Best made a number of important discoveries in Endocrinology, Metabolism and other areas of Medicine. The Lectureship is held bi-annually. Speakers are selected by a committee made up of senior investigators in the field of endocrinology from the Department of Physiology and its affiliated members in the various Hospitals and Research Centres in Toronto. Invited speakers are individuals who have made outstanding contributions to research in diabetes. The Inaugural University of Toronto Charles H. Best Lectureship and Award was given by Dr. Donald Steiner on November 2nd, 1995.
Previous Speakers:
(2001) Dr. Barbara Ellen Corkey, Director, Obesity Research Center, Boston Medical Center & Professor of Medicine & Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine: “Metabolic Regulation of Insulin Secretion"
(2003) Dr. Luciano Rossetti, Director, Diabetes Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine “Hypothalamic sensing of nutrients and the regulation of hepatic glucose”
(2005) Dr. Barbara Kahn, Professor of Medicine; Chief, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA "Intertissue communication reveals novel mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in obesity and type 2 diabetes"
(2009) Dr. Daniel J. Drucker, Director, Banting and Best Diabetes Centre, Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto "The future of incretin-based therapeutics"
(2011) Dr. Leonard Guarente, Novartis Professor, Department of Biology, Director of the Paul F. Glenn Lab. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA “Sirtuins, Aging and Disease"
(2013) Dr. Marc Montminy, Professor, Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA "Role of CREB and the CRTC Family of Coactivators in Glucose Homeostasis"
(2015) Dr. Douglas A. Melton, Professor, Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University Making human beta cells to understand and treat diabetes
(2017) Prof. Dr. Matthias H. Tschop, Scientific Director of the Helmholtz Diabetes Center and Chair of the Division of Metabolic Diseases at Technische Universität München, Germany.
"Unimolecular Polyagonists Targeting Gut-Brain
(2019) Dr. Ronald M. Evans, Professor and Director, Gene Expression Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California"Nuclear Receptors in the Origin and Treatment of Diabetes”
